Tenter machine



y 1930- .J. H. HAMILTON ET AL TENTER MACHINE Filed NOV. 10, 1928 2Sheets-Sheet 1 fig ATTORNEY,

May 13, 1930. J, HAMlLTON ET AL 1,758,697

TENTER MACHINE Filed Nov. 10, 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORNEY.

Patented May 13, 1930 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE JOHN H. HAMILTON, OFHOLYOKE, MASSACHUSETTS, AND JOHN H. WILLIAMS, OF PROVIDENCE, RHODEISLAND; SAID HAMILTON ASSIGNOR TO B. F. PERKINS & SON, INC., OF HOLYOKE,MASSACHUSETTS TENTEB MACHINE Application filed November 10, 1928. SerialNo. 318,498.

This invention relates to improvements in tentering machines and isdirected particularly to improvements in driving apparatus therefor.

Tentering machines of the type to which the invention relates consistessentially of endless traveling clamp chains formed from a. pluralityof clamps which are arranged for gripping opposite edges of a web ofcloth. The chains are supported on spaced rails and pass around and aredriven by sprockets. The clamps on the inner run of each chain gripopposite selvage edges of a web of cloth and travel forwardlysimultaneously so as to carry the cloth forwardly of the machine. Thecloth web is fed in between the clamp chains at one end of the machine,where the clamps are closed for gripping the cloth while at the other ordis charge end of the machine the clamps are opened to release thecloth.

As the cloth is being fed forwardly by the chains it may be and often isacted upon by drying or other apparatus for some desired effect and atthe same time the clamps function to stretch the cloth, or at least holdit against shrinking.

It is desirable that the weft and warp threads of the cloth be loosenedto assist in the drying while it is being carried forwardly by theclamps and therefore to provide for this according to one object of theinvention the clamp chains while traveling are alternately moved backand forth relative to one another. This is accomplished according to onenovel feature of the invention by accelerating and decelerating thespeed of one chain and then the other during their forward movement sothat the opposite selvageedges of the cloth are moved relative to oneanother while at the same time the cloth is being carried forwardly.

Frequently when a web of cloth is stretched between the chains thefilling elements of the fabric are found to be out of square withrespect to the warp elements and according to another object of theinvention I provide means for resquaring the filling while the web isheld and fed forwardly by the chains. This is accomplished according toa further novel feature of the invention by varying the rate of travelof one chain with respect to the other so that one edge of the web isfed at a faster or slower speed than the other to bring about thedesired squaring up of the transverse filling elements thereof.

Other novel features and advantages of the invention will be observedfrom the following description of the preferred form of the inventiontaken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is adiagrammatic plan view of a tentering machine embodying the novelfeatures of the invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional elevational view taken on the line 2-2of Fig. 1 looking towards the right in said figure.

Fig. 3 is a partial end elevational view of one end of the machine takenon the line 33 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4. is a side elevational view of the motor control apparatusconstituting a part of the invention.

Fig. 5 is a diagrammatic view of a wiring diagram showing how the motorsand con trol mechanism are connected.

Fig. 6 is a small scale and elevational view of the machine shown inFig. 1 taken at the right of said figure.

Referring to Fig. 1 of the drawings in detail a tenteringmachine isshown diagrammatically and comprises a pair of endless clamp chains 1and 1 which pass around rear idler sprockets 3 and forward drivingsprockets 4 while intermediate said sprockets they are guided andsupported by rails 2 which have their opposite ends supported by endframes 6 and 7 The rails and chains may take any form desired but forthe purpose of disclosing the novelty of the invention they will bedescribed in connection with Fig. 2. Clamps C have their adjacent endspivoted together so as to form the clamp chains 1 and each clampincludes a pivoted clamp bar 10 which is adapted to press the selvageedge E of a cloth web against a plate 12 so that as the chains are movedforwardly the clamps forming the chains may engage and hold oppositeedges of the cloth so as to feed it forwardly in the direction of thearrow in Fig. 1. Opening cams 16 at the forward end of the machine arearranged to engage cam eX- tensions 18 of the clamp bars as the clampsmove therepast, so that the web is released thereby when it arrives atthe discharge end of the machine while similar opening cams 20 at therear end thereof are provided to hold the clamps openso they may receivethe opposite edges of a web of cloth and allow them to close for theirclamping action. The clamps forming the chain are in some manner guidedin the rails 2 as, insuitable grooves and are held by guide members 2 sothat they may be guided in proper alignment. The apparatus thus fardescribed is well known in the art and need not be more fully describedwhile the apparatus for driving the chains and constituting importantfeatures of the invention will now be described with particularreference to Figs. 3, l and 5.

The driving sprockets 4 are fixed to shafts 5 which are mounted forrotation in bearings 5 provided on the frame 7 and are drivenindependently of one another by means of suitable gearing 22 fromseparate variable speed motors M, and M, which motors and gearing may bearranged to give the sprockets and clamp chains driven thereby therequired direction of travel.

It will be understood that each sprocket is thus driven so thataccording to one impor tant feature of the invention the current supplyto each motor may be independently controlled so that the chains may bedriven at various relative speeds to effect the special results to whichthe invention is directed.

The motors are connected and controlled in their operation after themanner now to be described with particular reference to Figs. 4 and 5.

M and M represent in a diagrammatic way the independent or separatevariable speed electric motors, one for each chain which are connectedthrough current control devices in the form of rheostats R and R to acurrent supply circuit including a pair of lead wires G and C.

The rheostat R preferably comprises a pair of resistances such as 26 and28 which have their ends connected to the motors M and M respectively.30 associated therewith and pivoted for oscillating movements isconnected to one of the supply leads such as C while its outer contactends are in contact with the resistances.

The parts are arranged so that as the arm swings back and forth theresistance to one motor is increased while simultaneously therewith theresistance in the other circuit is decreased. In this way the currentsupply to the motors is varied and thereby the speed of.

each motor is varied or accelerated and decelerated between what may betermed a high and a low speed, one motor accelerating at A singlecontact arm,

the time the other is decelerating. By this novel arrangement while thechains are moving forwardly and carrying the cloth forwardly, one chainspeeds up while the other slows down and vice versa. In this way thereis a longitudinal relative movement of the selvage edges of the clothduring its forward movement which is much desired toefiect a looseningup of the elements of the cloth during its travel through the machine.

To accomplish this the arm 30 as in Fig. 4 may be connected by a link 31to a gear 32 which is driven by a motor 34 so that the motor on rotatingwill rotate the gear to swing the arm back and forth to bring about thevariable control effect. The extent of the swinging movement of the armmay be varied by moving the pivotal connection of the link and gear backand forth radially of the gear by means of a slot connection as shown.

The rheostat R in the circuit to the motor M may be of usual form andadapted to control the current supply to the motor and therebyaccelerate or retard the speed thereof to vary the speed of the chaindriven by this motor with respect to the other chain. By varying thespeed of one chain in this way with respect to the speed of the otherchain one edge of the cloth may be carried for wardly at a differentspeed than the other. In effect one edge of the cloth is moved relativeto the other during tlieforward movement thereof and brings about thedesired squaring up of the filling element of the cloth with referenceto the warp elements.

In operating a web of cloth is fed between the clamps of the chain whichclamps engage the opposite edges thereof and as the motors are suppliedwith current the sprockets are rotated to carry thechains forwardly. Asthe arm of the rheostat R swings back and forth the resistances to themotors are alternately decreased and increased so that one motor iscaused to speed up while the other slows down. Thus each chain is fedforwardly at a speed varying between a low speed and a high speed so asto bring about a relative movement of the selvage edges of the cloth andeffects a loosening up of the elements thereof. lVhen desired therheostat R of one motor may be varied to control the speed of the motorand retard or accelerate the speed of one chain with respect to theother so as to effect a. movement of one selvage edge ofthe cloth withrespect to its other edge and thereby resquare the transverse fillingelements of the cloth.

Various gearing arrangements may be employed for eonnectingtheindependent motors to their respective chain sprockets and variousdevices may be'used for controlling or varying the speed of the motorswithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. lVe prefertherefore to be limited by the appended claims rather than by theforegoing description of the preferred form of the invention.

hat we claim is:

1. The combination of driving sprockets and clamp chains of a tenteringmachine with operating means therefor comprising, separate variablespeed electric motors connected to each of said sprockets, a circuit forsupplying current to said motors and means for varying the supply tosaid motors simultaneously whereby the speed of the motors isalternately accelerated and decelerated, the speed of one motor beingaccelerated while the other is de celerated and vice versa.

2. The combination of driving sprockets and clamp chains of a tenteringmachine with operating means therefor comprising, separate variablespeed motors operatively con;

nected to each of said sprockets, a circuit for said motors including aresistance between each of said motors and said circuit and a commonelement included in said circuit for simultaneously varying theresistances.

3. The combination of driving sprockets and clamp chains of a tenteringmachine with operating means therefor comprising, separate variablespeed motors operatively con nected to each of said sprockets, a circuitfor said motors including a resistance between each of said motors andsaid circuit and a common element included in said circuit forsimultaneously varying the resistances, and means for actuating saidelement.

4. The combination of driving sprockets and clamp chains of a tenteringmachine with operating means therefor comprising, separate variablespeed motors operatively connected to said sprockets, a circuit commonto said motors including a current control device for each of saidmotors whereby the current thereto is simultaneously controlled.

5. The combination of driving sprockets and clamp chains of a tenteringmachine with operating means therefor comprising, separate variablespeed motors operatively connected to said sprockets, a circuit forsupplying current to said motors, including a rheostat for controllingcurrent to said motors and means for operating said rheostat.

6. The combination of driving sprockets andclamp chains of a tenteringmachine with operating means therefor comprising, a pair of independentmotors operatively connected to said sprockets, a circuit for supplyingcurrent to said motors including a pair of leads one of which isconnected to said motors, resistances connected to said motors and anoscillatable arm in contact therewith which is connected to the other ofsaid leads whereby when the arm is oscillated the resistances are variedto control the current to said motors.

7. The combination of driving sprockets and clamp chains of a tenteringmachine with operating means therefor comprising, a pair of independentmotors operatively connected to said sprockets, a circuit for supplyingcurrent to said motors including a pair of leads one of which isconnected to said motors, resistances connected to said motors and anoscillatable arm in contact therewith which is connected to the other ofsaid leads whereby when the arm is oscillated the resistances are variedto control the current to said motors and means for oscillating saidarm.

8. The combination of driving sprockets and clamp chains of a tenteringmachine with operating means therefor comprising, a pair of independentmotors operatively connected to said sprockets, a circuit including apair of leads for supplying current to said motors, one of said leadsbeing connected to said motors, resistances connected to said motors, anoscillatable arm in contact therewith arranged to simultaneouslyincrease and decrease the resistance as it oscillates and beingconnected to the other lead of said pair and means for oscillating saidarm.

9. The combination of driving sprockets and clamp chains of a tenteringmachine with ope *ating means therefor comprising, a pair of independentmotors operatively connected to said sprockets, a circuit including apair of leads for supplying current to said motors, one of said leadsbeing connected to said motors, resistances connected to said motors, anoscillatable arm in contact therewith arranged to simultaneouslyincrease and decrease the resistance as it oscillates and beingconnected to the other lead of said pair, and means for oscillating saidarm and a current control device in the first named lead to one motorfor varying the current supply thereto with respect to the other.

10. The combination of driving sprockets and clamp chains of a tenteringmachine with operating means therefor comprising, independent electricmotors operatively connected to said sprockets, a circuit for supplyingcurrent to said motors, a rheostat in said circuit for controlling thesupply of current supply to said motors adapted to simultaneously andalternately decrease and increase the current supply to said motorsrespectively.

11. The combination of driving sprockets and clamp chains of a tenteringmachine with operating means therefor comprising, independent electricmotors operatively connected to said sprockets, a circuit for supplyingcurrent to said motors, a rheostat in said circuit for controlling thesupply of current supply to said motors adapted to simultaneously andalternately decrease and increase the current supply to said motorsrespectively and a second rheostat in said'circuit for controlling thesupply of current to one of said motors.

JOHN H. WILLIAMS. JOHN HAMILTON.

